Guardians of the Galaxy is one of the coolest movies to come out in the past year. It has awesome spaceships, explosions, a short-tempered raccoon with a penchant for heavy weaponry and an incredibly groovy soundtrack. But where did it all come from? There's a whole lot of work that goes into making a completely fantastic world — and a whole lot of people. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: The Art of the Movie brings credit where credit is due.

The book starts off with an explanation. Director James Gunn was initially going to turn the movie down. And then there was an epiphany, a moment when he realized that there was a whole lot to love about a talking raccoon. Then it's on to a history lesson. All the Marvel movies are based on pre-existing comic book characters, and the Guardians are no exception, with 50 years of continuity. Most of that continuity is now just a footnote. Yondu was a hero. Groot was once a villain who tried to take over the Earth. It's safe to say that the movie was so popular that every character who appeared in it will be rewritten from here on out.

The meat of the book is the concept art, from costumes to settings to characters and a whole lot of time spent on muscle starships. There were over 10 thousand pieces of concept art created for Guardians of the Galaxy, and a large, though not complete selection, can be found here. Little nuggets of information are dribbled on most pages, from methods for making costumes cool, stylish, reflective of historic periods, and simultaneously not interfering whenever a character goes to pull a blaster from their hip.

How do you make a galaxy and its guardians? Give a lot of talented artists free reign through history.

Missing children show up on milk cartons. What happens to missing adults whose disappearance may not trigger the same sense of urgency from law enforcement investigations? Novels The Missing Place by Sophie Littlefield and Descent by Tim Johnston combine taut suspense with a look at the family dynamics at play when an adult child vanishes.

Descent opens with Grant and Angie Courtland lazing in a Colorado hotel room bed while their son and college-bound daughter are out on an early morning mountain trail jaunt. A ringing telephone conveys the news to the parents that their Rockies summer vacation is now officially a nightmare. Sixteen-year-old Sean was found on the trail, unconscious and with a shattered leg; his older sister Caitlin has disappeared without a trace. Johnson examines the remaining Courtlands’ unique reactions to the tragedy while unraveling the mystery of Caitlin’s fate. Part family drama, part dark psychological thriller, Descent will keep the reader on tenterhooks to the end.

In The Missing Place, suburban Boston housewife Colleen Mitchell is flying to North Dakota armed only with a handful of text messages from her son Paul, who’s gone missing after he dropped out of college to work as a roughneck in the booming hydrofracking industry. Colleen ends up sharing lodgings with Shay, mother to a young man who went missing along with Paul, and the two women from opposite sides of the tracks form an uneasy alliance to search for their sons. Colleen brings her corporate lawyer husband’s financial resources to their quest while Shay brings tech savvy and street smarts, but is that sufficient to breach the cone of silence engineered by gas companies intent on guarding their bottom line? Littlefield, an Edgar Award nominee who writes for both adults and teens, deftly portrays the anguish of mothers determined to find their sons who end up uncovering some unexpected adult secrets, too.

Imagine that right this second you could be anywhere else in the world: Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you seek out? Where would your dreams take you?

Cent dreams of space. She can jump anywhere in the world. Space is a whole other set of challenges.

The ticking heart of a Steven Gould book is the hard science underlying a fantastic premise. Yes, Cent and her parents can jump anywhere in the world, but it's underpinned by physics. Playing around with the implications of instantaneous travel is only part of the package. Much of the rest of it comes from examinations of present day and near future space travel. The third pillar of a Steven Gould story is relatively normal characters living through the fantasy.

Exo is the fourth book in Gould's Jumper series, which climbed all the way to the box office in an almost completely unrelated movie. Every single book has looked at the implications of instant travel, and every book has shown new revelations. This is the first to take the concept into space and ponder questions with serious real world implications. We're unlikely to ever have the ability to teleport freely, but any method that could allow for cheap or free launches could change the course of human history in large and small ways. A long, positive look is taken at the idea of letting senior citizens spend time in the comfort of zero gravity, for instance.

It's not all science. There are broken hearts, patchy relationships, awkward family bonding and an organization of spies lurking in the background. But Exo is a fun, fast romp that plays with some big ideas.

Victoria Laurie doesn’t just write about mediums. In addition to being a New York Times bestselling author, Laurie does psychic readings as well. One of her new novels, When, hits close to home with a story about a girl who sees the date someone is going to die, just by looking at them.

It’s unfortunate that Maddie didn’t understand what those numbers were in time to let her father know. She is now being raised by her mother who has become a severe alcoholic after her husband’s murder. In order to help support the family, Maddie’s mother sets up appointments where she can do readings for people who want to know when they or a family member will pass away.

While doing a reading, Maddie has to give a client sad news, and is met with skepticism and disregard. In an effort to help her client’s child, she calls to repeat her plea to keep her son close on his death date. When the boy goes missing, Maddie comes under scrutiny as the prime suspect, and rumors about her involvement run rampant through her school, making her life miserable.

Laurie has created a fast-paced thriller that is hard to put down. When is a character driven novel sure to entice not only young adults, but anyone looking for a page-turner in the same vein as The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes.

It’s hard to root against a 7-year-old named Millie Bird, the charming, precociously wise protagonist in Lost & Found, the heart-tugging debut by Australian author Brooke Davis. Millie just wants to find her mum, who has absconded from the large ladies’ underwear section of a local department store. Fortunately, Millie crosses paths with two peculiar octogenarians who become the unlikely minders for the abandoned Millie. It falls to them to reunite the little girl with her wayward mom.

Millie desperately needs a “Dot Four” since her father has died and now her grief-stricken mother has disappeared. Connecting the three dots from mom to dad to herself meant Millie felt safe. But now the red-gumboot-wearing, curly headed youngster is obsessed with dead things and carries a “just in case” glass jar around. She finds herself on a bumpy road trip through Western Australia suburbia with two elderly companions, who are also thinking about death but for different reasons. Karl the Touch Typist nervously types letters in the air as he speaks. He misses his dead wife. Millie’s neighbor, the sad and grumpy Agatha, has not left her house since her husband died seven years ago. “How do you get old without letting sadness become everything?” wonders Agatha. Indeed, it’s but one of many questions asked in Davis’ irresistible story that fuses the psychological reservoirs of grief with humor and the hopefulness of youthful perspective.

A suggested book club selection, Lost & Found may appear as a lighter read from its colorful, whimsical cover, but don’t be fooled. Inspired by events in the author’s own life, the novel was born out of a doctoral thesis on grief. Davis, whose own mother died suddenly in 2006, was “relearning the world” too, like her three distinctly voiced characters. With steady pacing and brief sectioned chapters, Lost & Found will strike a chord with anyone who has ever considered the many forms of missing someone and the different shapes of acceptance. Fans of The Rosie Project by fellow Australian author Graeme Simsion may also want to give this strong first effort a try.

Michael Pitre’s Fives and Twenty-Fives is the perfect book for customers clamoring for their holds on Phil Klay’s National Book Award-winning collection Redeployment. Like Klay, Pitre is also a former Marine who served in Iraq before returning home to chronicle his thoughts in writing, using fiction to reveal the realest truths.

Fives and Twenty-Fives reads as an assemblage of harrowing experiences Pitre survived while on active duty, told through three characters whose stories are woven into a moving novel. These three Marines comprise a portion of an Iraq Road Repair Platoon that sweeps U.S. military routes through the desert in search of hidden explosives. Donovan, the lieutenant, tries to lead and represent his squad while combatting the weight of self-loathing and the isolation of rank amidst imminent ambush. Lester “Doc” Pleasant is the platoon’s medic responsible for the lives of his teammates, but after witnessing a Marine overlook a live bomb, he resorts to his field kit for solace. Road Repair’s interpreter is an intelligent third-world post-grad named Kateb, known as callsign “Dodge” by his platoon. Dodge harbors an internal war between morality and loyalty that keeps him distanced from the Marines. Whenever his wall of superficiality is breached by violence, Dodge folds into a disheveled copy of Huck Finn and reflects on the university life that was stolen from him.

With a supporting unit of strongly humanized soldiers, Road Repair wages perpetual war with scorching desert conditions and treacherous insurgent traps. Pitre illustrates these losing battles without overwhelming readers with military jargon or trivializing the emotions and dispatches. Even with checks like fives and twenty-fives in place, it’s impossible to return from deployment unscathed.

The most prestigious awards for teen and children's literature were announced by the American Library Association (ALA) in Chicago today. Awards were given in a wide range of categories that covered all formats and age levels. You can find a complete list of awards, winners and honorees on the ALA website.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. This year’s winner is The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend written and illustrated by Dan Santat. This beautifully illustrated tender tale of one imaginary friend waiting patiently to be picked by a child will captivate young readers with its creative spark.

The oldest of the medals awarded, the John Newbery Medal, is awarded to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. This year’s medal recipient is Kwame Alexander for The Crossover, a novel in verse sharing the coming-of-age story of twins Josh and Jordan and their changing lives on and off the basketball court.

The Michael L. Printz Award annually honors the best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit. This year’s winner is I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, the story of twins (again!) Noah and Jude, their fractured relationship and attempt to recover what they once had.

The Coretta Scott King Awards are given to outstanding African-American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults that demonstrate an appreciation of African-American culture and universal human values. Christopher Myers received the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for his vibrant collage combinations of paint, paper and photographed elements which bring to life the inspirational story of a budding ballerina in Firebird, written by Misty Copeland. Jacqueline Woodson, already the recipient of the National Book Award, was awarded the Coretta Scott King Author Award for Brown Girl Dreaming, her lyrical novel in verse of her childhood in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sometimes the Wolf: A Novel by Urban Waite is about a small town sheriff and his son. Thinking about Andy Griffith? Only if Andy is in jail for dealing drugs, Opie’s married and a deputy himself, Barney Fife is in charge and Aunt Bea doesn’t exist. In other words, this isn’t Mayberry.

Bobby Drake, deputy in Silver Lake, Washington, has a lot on his plate. He is tracking a rogue wolf through the Cascade Mountains, his marriage is strained and his father Patrick, a former Silver Lake sheriff, is newly free on parole after serving 12 years for his part in a drug smuggling ring. He is also moving in with Bobby. Add in a DEA agent who is determined to pin an unsolved murder and theft of a few hundred thousand dollars on Patrick, as well as a chilling pair of escaped convicts who are chasing after both Patrick and the money, and Bobby is stressed. Trying to understand why his father, an officer of the law, became a criminal strains the relationship between the two men to the point of breaking.

Waite’s writing is sometimes compared to Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, with his matter-of-fact prose and tense stories which march along a seemingly inevitable path of increasing violence, creating a sense of both dread and anticipation for the reader. Loyalty and vengeance propel this father and son thriller as Sometimes the Wolf reveals that redemption can come when least expected.

The rugged terrain of Derbyshire provides a melancholy backdrop for Already Dead by Barry Award winner Stephen Booth. The summer rains bring mud, floods and a corpse laying in a shallow ditch. Detective Diane Fry, substituting as team leader for the absent Ben Cooper, gloomily ponders a crime scene as it is inexorably swept downstream. There is more bad news: the victim is an unassuming insurance agent who lives at home with his mother and doesn’t have enough of a personality to like or dislike. Who would want to kill such a person? Struggling to inspire loyalty from another detective’s team, Diane remembers the qualities that make Ben Cooper such a good detective and wonders where in the world he is.

Tragically, Ben Cooper lost his fiancée while they were both investigating a crime scene. Trapped in a fire, Ben desperately attempted to reach her, only to be overcome by smoke and flames. Recovering from his injuries, he is trapped in a nightmare of memories of that deadly night and his single-minded resolve to gain justice for his murdered fiancée. For murder it was – it was arson. Deliberate, callous, reckless disregard for human life to make a profit. But the law doesn’t always provide redress, and the guilty sometimes go free. Devastated, Ben spends his days roaming the Dales, biding his opportune moment for revenge.

This taut police procedural featuring Detective Sergeants Diane Fry and Ben Cooper is the 13th entry in the series. While the other offerings in this series are all equally satisfying, this work could read as a standalone, as the author provides a vivid portrayal of the preceding events. Booth consistently provides deep insight into the inner workings of the British constabulary, particularly the plight of the more rural districts. Well-drawn characters, compelling moral situations and good old-fashioned police work can always be found in Booth’s work. Fans of Peter Robinson, Elizabeth George and Ruth Rendell will find a new friend in this author.

Acclaimed Australian author Colleen McCullough died at age 77 following a long illness. McCullough wrote over 20 novels during the span of her long career, which began with the publication of her first book in 1974. Her most recent novel, Bittersweet, shared the story of four sisters navigating love, life and loss in 1920s Australia.

It's the mega blockbuster, The Thorn Birds, for which McCullough will be most remembered. A sweeping romantic saga spanning three generations of an Australian family, it was the most talked about book of its day and sold 30 million copies worldwide. The paperback rights alone sold for $1.9 million, and the miniseries featuring Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward and Barbara Stanwyck was the second highest rated miniseries of all time.

McCullough always stretched herself as a writer, trying her hand at different genres. Her mystery series featuring Carmine Delmonico, a police captain in a small Connecticut college town was critically well-received, and her Masters of Rome series, a seven-book, impeccably researched historical series, had fans in the political realm, including Henry Kissinger and Newt Gingrich. Explore her legacy...